‘Halo: Spartan Assault’ heads into battle on Xbox 360 and Xbox One in December

We all knew it would happen at some point. Halo: Spartan Assault, which was previously a twin-stick shooting Windows 8-exclusive, is coming to Xbox 360 and Xbox One this December. The cat was let out of the bag by new update on Halo Waypoint.

Microsoft dropped this spin-off adventure (set between the events of Halo 3 and Halo 4) over the summer in a bid to draw some attention of the gaming world over to Windows 8. No matter how you gauge the success of that effort, there’s no denying that Halo’s true and forever home is on Xbox consoles.

Spartan Assault is a fairly straightforward twin-stick shooter played from a top-down perspective. It launched, very oddly, with only mouse/keyboard and touchscreen support on Windows 8, though a gamepad control option was patched in later. The newly console-ized take on the game features an online co-op mode as well as the Operation Hydra expansion, which layers more content on top of the stock game’s 30+ missions. The console release also adds an assortment of new weapons, armor, abilities, and upgrades. You’ll need them all to take on the port’s added enemy: the Flood. That’s right, the Halo-verse’s take on zombies will make an appearance in Spartan Assault after being snubbed in Halo 4.

There’s no specific release date yet, but December isn’t that far off and we should be hearing more about Halo: Spartan Assault for Xbox One and Xbox 360 soon. For more on Halo: Spartan Assault, check out our review.